1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an arrangement for mounting a reclining device to an automotive seat, and particularly is directed to providing an improved arrangement for mounting the reclining device having a lower bracket to a base bracket erected on a seat adjusting device provided under the seat.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In most instances, an automotive seat is mounted on a slide rail device fixed on the floor of the automobile, for the purpose of permitting the forward/backward positional adjustment of the seat. A reclining device is also mounted on that seat construction such that its upper bracket is fixed on the lateral wall of the seat back and its lower bracket is fixed to the base bracket erected on the slide rail device, for permitting the inclination adjustment of the seat back relative to the seat cushion. It is, however, quite often the case that the lower bracket of the reclining device is in its lower half area formed with an integrally inwardly recessed portion which is recessed inwardly of the seat, extending generally in parallel with the upper half area of the lower bracket, thus defining a difference in level between the upper and lower halves of the lower bracket, in order to match a seat of the type wherein the slide rail device is smaller in width than the seat back as well as to avoid the interference or contact of the lower bracket with a surrounding projected part the of automobile body, a center console, a raised center portion formed in the floor of automobile, or the like. Such a reclining device is vulnerable from a dynamic viewpoint due to the lower bracket thereof being of the foregoing level-difference structure. This is because, when a great downward load is applied to the lower bracket in a collision accident, the bent intermediate part integrally formed between the upper and lower halves of the lower bracket is easily deformed by that downward load, and consequently the lower bracket is deformed, bringing about failure or trouble to the reclining device. A solution to this problem has been achieved by increasing the thickness of the lower bracket of the reclining device for reinforcement purposes.
Additionally, in the case of a seat belt anchor being mounted on the seat cushion, then an upwardly pulling force is applied to the mounting area of the seat belt anchor in a collision accident, and there is a further need to consider a reinforcing arrangement for such seat belt anchor mounting area.
For the above reasons, the conventional reclining devices require a separate reinforcing means to obviate the foregoing dynamically weak points, and result in the increase of reinforcing members and thus undesired increase of the whole seat.